Go record that handball violation. We made an error. Back in February when naderman detailed his vision for phpBB, he forgot to mention exactly how YOU could get involved.
The missing piece was a description of Area51, which has scattered links around phpBB.com, the bug tracker, the code forge, and so forth. But its purpose is never clearly explained. So here we go:
Most feature requests would begin as Discussion topics, where you might write:
If you have already a substantial understanding of the coding requirements of a feature, you might move along to the RFC (request for comments) stage. In an RFC, more implementation details should be included. If any code has been written, that should be part of the RFC. Depending on the extent of the feature and whether or not there is already code to look at would influence how long an RFC should be. Again, feedback will be given and in particular feedback about inclusion in phpBB.
The bug tracker is used to track accepted RFCs, so if an RFC is accepted at area51 a bug should then be filed. Once the code is complete, the feature should be merged into phpBB’s github repository.
And a brief word of explanation about why this error took so long to uncover:
Area51 has always existed (dating back to 2001 or so), and has always been used for the purpose of discussing and testing the future version of phpBB. It had not been used much in recent times because there was no real development of a future version until earlier this year. Since Area51 was linked from phpBB.com, we implictly thought that people would find it and would know what was going on.
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The missing piece was a description of Area51, which has scattered links around phpBB.com, the bug tracker, the code forge, and so forth. But its purpose is never clearly explained. So here we go:
Most feature requests would begin as Discussion topics, where you might write:
I think phpBB should have a recycle bin for posts. This would eliminate problems with moderators deleting posts that really should not be deleted. The recycle bin should allow posts to be restored at any time, and should appear in the moderator control panel.
The discussion topic should help to form an overview of what aspects the proposed feature would have. It is also a place to gauge relative interest and find a developer.
If you have already a substantial understanding of the coding requirements of a feature, you might move along to the RFC (request for comments) stage. In an RFC, more implementation details should be included. If any code has been written, that should be part of the RFC. Depending on the extent of the feature and whether or not there is already code to look at would influence how long an RFC should be. Again, feedback will be given and in particular feedback about inclusion in phpBB.
The bug tracker is used to track accepted RFCs, so if an RFC is accepted at area51 a bug should then be filed. Once the code is complete, the feature should be merged into phpBB’s github repository.
And a brief word of explanation about why this error took so long to uncover:
Area51 has always existed (dating back to 2001 or so), and has always been used for the purpose of discussing and testing the future version of phpBB. It had not been used much in recent times because there was no real development of a future version until earlier this year. Since Area51 was linked from phpBB.com, we implictly thought that people would find it and would know what was going on.
Continue Reading...
